Animation and Creativity in the Classroom

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2016 in the subject Guidebooks - School, Education, Pedagogy, Auckland University of Technology, language: English, abstract: The book is the description of a model of how young people learn about animation and machinima and looks at three key themes: creativity, which is the process of developing original ideas that have value, media literacy which is the knowledge, skills and competencies that are required to use and interpret media, and culture which influences critical and creative behaviour. The study draws from Raymond Williams' definition of culture, Lev Vygotsky's work on the development and use of creativity and Paul Well's analysis of animation language. It looks at the history of animation as an art form and a popular medium, the debate about high and popular culture, the history of art education and aesthetics and media education and criticality. The research consists of case studies of action research that explore approaches to 'camera-less' animation, drawn animation, model animation and machinima, as carried out in Norfolk Secondary Schools and Schome Park, a secure 3D virtual world for thirteen to seventeen year olds, set in Teen Second Life. The book argues that (1) Animation and machinima offer a multidisciplinary model of creativity that allows for play, imagination and fantasy, but it also needs a literacy framework to develop students' creativity in order to produce animations that are original and valuable from a critical perspective. (2) Youth culture changes the way young people engage with animation. (3) Worthwhile learning about animation and machinima has some domain-specific elements, it needs specific knowledge and depends on multimodal choices and media literacies. In all of this, the study proposes ways to consolidate art and media education, new media arts and their respective practices and pedagogies. Good teaching and learning are key factors that foster positive learning progression and are standards by which the quality of young peoples' creative work can be encouraged, understood and evaluated.